Adulterated spices seized in Nagpur

Nagpur, June 30 (IANS) Huge stocks of adulterated spices along with harmful substances were seized Monday when the crime branch of the city police raided a spice factory here. The products confiscated from the unit, Mayur Masala Products, in the city’s Lakadganj small scale industries’ area mainly included chilly and turmeric powder and a few pepper varieties, the police said. The estimated value of the seized material is Rs.1 million.

The proprietor, Mahendra Kesarvani, whose unit was raided by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) authorities in December last year, used to adulterate turmeric and chilly powder besides pepper with sawdust, chemicals and artificial colours unfit for human consumption, police inspector Sunil Bonde told IANS.

Packets of these chemicals and artificial colours bearing labels ‘unfit for human consumption’ and sawdust bags were also seized, Bonde said.

Kesarvani also used bogus ‘Agmark’ standardization seals to lend authenticity to the products he sold under the brand names ‘Mayur’ and ‘Ganga’ in the markets in Gondia (Vidarbha, Maharashtra), Raipur, Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), Tatanagar and Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bonde added.

FDA assistant commissioner G.K. Rathod said that prosecution will soon be launched against the unit as the samples seized during the December 2007 raid have been tested and found to be adulterated.